Turkey Property Sales Up 23.8% in October

Turkey property sales to foreign buyers are up 23.8% in October 2015 compared to the same month last year, according to the Turkish Statistics Agency (TÜİK).

The latest figures are higher than the yearly increase 15.2% increase as measured in September 2015, which suggests that Turkey’s property market is on track for another record-breaking year.

Gulf Region & Iraq

The data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (Turkstat) shows that Turkey is particularly appealing to buyers from the Gulf region as was evident at the recent annual Cityscape Global real estate expo in Dubai.

During the September expo, there were 50 Turkish firms exhibiting, in which Turkey Homes was included and Tolga Ertukel, Founder of Turkey Homes certainly witnessed a growing interest from Middle Eastern buyers. “We had lots of interests at the expo from people looking to snap up a holiday home in the trendy city of Istanbul or one of the many beautiful coastal resorts,” Tolga explains.

According to Turkstat released in September, Iraqis were the most prevalent nationality buying in Turkey accounting for 19.6% of property sales. This is followed by 13.3% buyers from Saudi Arabia and 11.1% from Kuwait. These figures are supported by the Istanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate which says that the number of Arab tourists has almost doubled in number since 2010.

British overseas buyers are also thought to have contributed to the increase in foreign buyers in Turkey, taking advantage of increasing attractive interest rates that mean some of Turkey’s properties can now be purchased for less than two years ago, in spite of increasing local house price rises.

Turkey Property Market Recovery

In the first 10 months of this year, there have been 18,428 properties sold to overseas buyers – an increase of close to 20 percent on the same period in 2014.

“Although Turkey was affected by the property crash, the rate of recovery was much faster than much of the world, predominately caused by a young, energetic population and an undersupply of homes,” adds Tolga. “The healthy rate of property appreciation is expected to continue but when you compare the vibrant city of Istanbul to other cities, property prices are a real bargain.”

Recent changes in rules governing property ownership have also made buying property in Turkey much more appealing to foreigners. The 'reciprocity principle' means foreigners can purchase freehold land and property in their own names in Turkey providing that Turkish citizens are allowed to buy freehold land and property in the purchaser's country of origin of residence. This includes most of Europe and the Middle East.

“There’s not many places in the world where you can have a seafront apartment for less than £100,000 or a swanky city apartment if you are not a millionaire,” says Tolga. “Turkey really does offer something for everyone; a wonderful climate, friendly locals and a fantastic lifestyle.”